Autistic boy drowned in Disneyland pool

A five-year-old autistic boy on a dream Christmas trip to Disneyland Paris died after falling in the hotel swimming pool, it was revealed today.

Staff at the Thomas Cook-owned three-star Explorers Hotel close to the resort confirmed there had been no lifeguard on duty when Colum Canning from Derry fell into the water after disappearing from his mother’s view.

Tonight one of the family’s neighbours described Colum as “a lovely, lovely little boy”.

Colum was quickly discovered in the water by another guest who jumped in and dragged him out but he had already lost consciousness.

On Saturday he died in hospital after his parents David and Karen took the decision to switch his life-support machine off.

They agreed to donate their son’s organs.

The Canning family, Colum, twin brother Kieran, seven-year-old sister Caitlin and parents had just checked in at the hotel when the accident happened.

They had left their home in Derry to spend Christmas in Disneyland as a special treat for the brothers’ Boxing Day birthday.

Neighbours around the Hawthorne Grove family home off the Springtown Road in the Creggan area of the city were stunned.

At the family home a single bouquet of flowers bearing the simple message “God Bless” was left against the front wall of the neat three-year-old semi-detached house.

The empty house was bedecked with Christmas decorations and the tree in the living room with parcels too big to take to Paris still underneath.

Next door neighbour Fionnulia O’Kane said: “It’s awful, I don’t know what Karen is going to do when she gets back. It’s heart-breaking. He was a lovely, lovely little boy.”

She added: “I’m going to miss Colum. He and his brother were always playing around just outside the front door and running in and out of my house.”

The twins started school in September at St Eithne’s Primary School a few hundred yards from their home.

But a few weeks ago the brothers, who were both autistic, were switched to the special needs unit at a nearby school.

The headmaster of St Eithne’s, Gerry Cosgrave said: “It’s such a terrible tragedy, especially coming so close to Christmas. It’s terrible for the family.

“The staff are totally and utterly shocked and everybody feels for the wee boy and his parents.”

Close family friend and neighbour Donna Grant said: “It must be terrible for them. Karen is such an attentive mother, she never ever lets those boys out of her sight. She is so protective of the twins.

“We are all just waiting for them to come home as soon as possible, we don’t want them to have to stay in Paris over Christmas now.”

Nuala Kavelehan, who lives just across the green from the Cannings said: “They are a lovely family, you would see the boys coming and going and the little girl running around – the special needs bus picked them up outside the house each morning.”

Colum’s aunt, Sophie Martin Canning described him as a mischievous little child who was inseparable from his twin.

“Colum was a lovely five-year-old boy. He was loving and full of mischief,” she said.

“The twins were inseparable. They just could not be separated ever.”

A spokesman for Thomas Cook said: “Our deepest sympathies are with the Canning family at this very difficult time. Our staff are doing everything they can to provide support to the family and we have sent a company representative and a trained counsellor to be with them until they return home.”

East Derry MP Gregory Campbell said: “I think the sympathies of the entire community are with the family over what appears to be a tragic accident.”

The DUP Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure at Stormont added: “I’m sure the thoughts and prayers of the family’s friends and colleagues will comfort them at this terrible time.”

Foyle Assembly member Mary Bradley added: “Our thoughts are with the family, his mother and father, and their extended family. This is a terrible tragedy - it seems even worse at this time of year and also because it was a child.”